ELA staying open

The Canadian Press/HO- International Institute for Sustainable Development

An aerial view of a field station is shown in a handout photo. A world-famous research area in northwestern Ontario will remain open thanks to agreements between the provincial and federal governments and the Manitoba-based group that runs the facility.

By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com

The Ontario government has signed a deal that will keep the Experimental Lakes Area open in 2014.

The province on Tuesday announced it had reached an agreement with the International Institute for Sustainable Development that will allow scientists to continue a number of vital research projects.

Among the research being conducted are the exploration of ecological risks associated with nanomaterials released into the environment and monitoring lake recovery from mercury, a common emission from coal plants.

Established in 1968 about 50 kilometres southeast of Kenora, the ELA was slated for closure by the federal Conservatives before Ontario stepped up last year to save the facility, committing at least $2 million a year to keep it open.

“The Experimental Lakes Area is a truly significant location in the Northwest that continues to produce vital scientific and academic research. I’m extremely pleased that our government has taken a lead role to keep the facility operational and allow for important research to continue,” said Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle in a release issued by the province.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Winnipeg-based research organization that has been running the facility, began negotiations with the federal and Ontario governments in late 2012 to try to keep it open.

Under agreements reached among the three parties, management of the 58-lake facility will transfer from Fisheries and Oceans Canada to Ontario, effective immediately.

One of the only whole-lake laboratories available in the world, the Experimental Lake Area has attracted scientists studying the impacts of stressors and pollutants from human activity and industrial development on freshwater lakes, streams and surrounding watersheds.

That research has helped lead to environmental legislation in Canada and worldwide. In the 1970s research at the facility identified that acid rain could lead to the death of freshwater fish.

Comments

Liberals did this, Liberals did that, all hail Harper and the great Conservative Party. These PC trolls are so brainwashed that the Liberals could give them a million dollars and they would find a way to complain about it.

Read the above link. The accumulated deficit is 100 billion lower than is referred to on this site repeatedly. The net debt figure is 272. The difference is because it was the LIBERALS who changed the rules to accurately reflect what the province owes. You can see from the chart that the Liberals were paying down the deficit for 3 consecutive years until the recession hit despite the continuous misleading statements that appear here.

I am not defending debt or deficits. I hate them all. I am critizing the continued misleading statements that appear on this site as fact. It is all the "expert critics" know. As a percentage of GDP it is starting to go down but still much higher than five years ago, but are we destitute. NO. Bankrupt NO. Does the province need to do better. YES but the clowns here always speak the same language. So will I. Never in the past 5 decades has our local economy been this strong. Sorry to state the facts.

yes, the Fraser institute. That bastion of fairness and accuracy. Give me a break. I don't know if the OFINA study is accurate, but the Fraser institute has zero credibility considering their sources of funding.

So what about the future unfunded liabilities that go unreported. Commitments to future civil servants pensions, benefits, and payouts if the civil service needs to be downsized? Are those included in the $272,000,000,000. Do you really know the answer.

Lets not forget that this huge number is growing each day, since the Libs fund their annual budget by borrowing future tax revenues.The libs still haven`t figured out that they can`t borrow their way out of a fiscal trainwreck. What will McWynny do in her upcoming budget. Spend the lights out, and borrow more money that they don`t have.

The solution is easy. Quit wasting money on pet projects. Quit feeding the civil service. Start paying down the debt.

All you Liberals say that you hate debt & deficits. Send that message to your leader and tell her to get at it.

I do not know as much as the above posters when it comes to debt and that sort of thing. I am not a big fan of debt but I do understand it. I understand the Liberals added a lot. I understand the Federal Government added a lot and even the conservative government in Alberta is on pace for a 21 Billion deficit in 2017, so this sort of thing does cross party lines. I would prefer zero debt but then I would prefer zero debt for everyone, except for the house and worst case a needed car.

But as Mike points out I am puzzled over the non-stop complaining that this site is home to. It seems that there are 10 or 20 people who troll this site looking for reasons to bash the Liberals. Now I am all for a good thrashing but these folks do seem to have blinders on.

Are the Liberals perfect. heck no. Neither are the tories or the NDP.

Have we received a heck of a lot as Mike outlined. I say yes. You can hate it, but take Mikes challenge. Ask the Tories or NDP which stuff they will take from us.

I love this site, every announcement the same comments appear. the gov't should just shut down, forget funding anything until we know if there is an election or not. Maybe that would please most of the people on this site. Actually i have a better idea. What investments in tbay should we give back, the money for a first new law school in ontario in 50 years and the new jobs and new students providing economic benefit. Maybe the billions in Bombardier bringing a plant that had 250 workers to near 1400. Maybe the billions in northern highways, maybe give back the new courthouse, maybe download services back onto the city like the conservatives did instead of uploading them onto the provinces budget saving tbay millions for their budget, I could go on and on but on this site it really doesn't matter what anyone says..people just love to complain about anything and everything. The fact is there has never been a provincial gov't that has invested more in Tbay....and thats a fact.

Who said about giving anything back Mike. We just need to stop wasting money on gas plant vote buying schemes, quit overpaying civil servants and stream line operations, quit wasting money on ornge screw ups, get out of the green energy, feel good process. Etc, etc.

You must be living in outer space not to see the continual waste. Keep spending on health care (other some of the ridiculous upper management wages), keep spending responsibly on education (but roll back and freeze wages & benefits and pensions), spend carefully on services to seniors/children.

But start paying down the credit card bill. The interest charges are strangling the budget.

Less government in Ontario's case might very well be better government.

But Mike, don't hand us this bs with bombardier, road improvements. There's lots of waste to cut before you get to those items.

And quit with this "investment" crap. Its all taxpayers money one way or the other. It didn't come out of the liberals personal pockets.

all you have to do is read the story to see why this is not worth pursuing any longer.

First off, lets look at what its done. Not much. It told us about acid rain in the 70s? Big deal, that's a very long time ago and its nothing we didn't already know.

Next up they talk about coal plants. In case you haven't been paying attention, coal plants are done in Ontario. What further use will we find out? We'd need new coal plants or to artificially introduce more mercury into them. Does that make any sense at all?

If they really want to see the effects of industrialization on water fronts they would be better off studying areas where that occurs, not some summer camp for government funded employees.

The real world is where studies need to happen, where all factors are considered, not just some remote location in a non industrialized area.

The Experimental Lakes area has contributed massively in many areas of product study and analysis of the effects on almost every aspect of a watershead. Remember when phosphates were eliminated from laundry detergents? - that was from experiments done at this facility. Anytime a new chemical or process is being considered, it has to be studied for the environmental effects - computer models only get you so far. You obviously haven't been following their progress over the years - or have even checked out their site, where you can get detailed summaries of the research that has happened there. They have done some amazingly valuable work and continue to do so. You also think that it is a government paid vacation? I dare you to qualify to do field work and then try it out for yourself - it's no walk in the park - it is important and difficult work - you have no idea.

oh look, a government employee has magically appeared to tell us all how important they are.

its long since done. Phosphate from laundry detergent? My lord, how did we ever not blow up the world?

Please you're trying to use emotion to justify your own job.

and yes, I too believe its a government paid vacation. Don't tell people they have no idea when you have no idea about what they have done either. They just may know a whole lot more about the subject than you do.

Actually...no. It makes no sense to do all the studies at places where are coal plants. How would you control variables? You need fresh, untainted water to study the effects of pollutants and coal plants.

"Interest on the debt is I believe the 3rd or 4th highest expense we pay for in Ontario".

It is in fact the 3rd highest expense we are saddled with. No services or benefits provided. Just interest. Ontario pays $1 billion each month. We have the second highest debt per capita of all states/provinces in North America. Each man, woman, & child pays $1,000 each year. On average, each family of 4 pays more in provincial interest charges than they do for their entire municipal tax bill.

Why? Most informed taxpayers would realize that the Liberal spending is wildly out of control. The reckless spending scandals just keep on rolling. Followed by denial, lies, cheating and more vote buying. Repeated over & over & over again.

In the upcoming leaked provincial budget, you can expect more reckless and irresponsible spending. Most designed to get the Liberals re-elected.

Do your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren a favour. Vote anybody but Liberal in the next provincial election.